The Carphone Warehouse have launched an innovative way to stream your music files on the go, called My Hub.
The way it works is very clever; the service mirrors your own music collection, and gives you access to tracks that you already own and mirrors them by selecting them from their own catalogue.
The process of filling a virtual locker is quite clever as you won't have to download the tracks as the system streams the tracks from the Carphone Warehouse's collection of track and not the ones on your hard drive. And if it doesn't have the said track it will add it and make a copy to your online account. You'll be able to access the music through an app for your iPhone, Android or Blackberry.
The service says pirated music is fine because its licensing deal means artists and labels get paid for plays but if most of your collection is nicked, you could be in for trouble"¦Not sure what will happen, but if it scans your whole library and it's all copies it may be able to recognise this and possibly alert the powers that be. So be warned.
Though Carphone Warehouse says Music Anywhere won't distinguish between legitimate tracks and pirated tunes, Music Ally points out that the terms and conditions contain a warning: "In extreme cases where it becomes apparent that most of a person's music collection has been pirated, Music anywhere reserves the right to terminate the service."
Music Anywhere is part of the Carphone Warehouse MyHub service and it being offered for customers for £29.99 or will be bundled for free with the Samsung Galaxy Europa and they're considering offering the service too with certain contracts. Like Sportify, the service will buffer the tracks over 3G or Wi-Fi, but it won't work offline, which is a major feature of the £9.99 Spotify account.
It sounds like a compelling alternative to rather expensive Spotify and if it get's bundled with your contract then we sure it will become a viable alternative, although Apple has a iTunes Cloud service reportedly waiting in the wings.
Hit the comments to let us know whether you think Carphone Warehouse is on to a winner with Music Anywhere.